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What's in a Hallelujah?

I've always been musically inclined. Ever since I can remember I have loved to sing and listen to music. These days I'm better at playing the radio than singing, but I still love to do both. One of the most iconic and interesting lyrics I've ever encountered is the song "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen. With it haunting melody, its stark biblical imagery, and intriguingly vague lyrics, the song has been covered by everyone from Pentatonix to Gavin Degraw to Jeff Buckley to Justin Timberlake. It even found its way into the movie Shrek. The lyrics have about as many different interpretations as there are covers to the song.

But I'm not a music critic, but I am a preacher so I began to ask myself. What does the term Hallelujah mean? Not in Leonard Cohen's twisted logic, but Biblically. What I found was a lot more than just a haunting lyric and a interjection of praise. There's far more to it than that and to uncover it we need to go to where else? the Bible's songbook, the Psalms. While the book wasn't originally a songbook but rather a collection of Jewish poems, many of them did become the songs of the Israelite people especially in their seasons of Exile. Even the Jews themselves found what so many Christians down through the centuries have found; that these lyrics give us lyrical handles on deep emotions to be communicated to God. The phrase "Hallelujah" is no different. It's what I found this morning in Psalm 148-150.

Highlight:

'Let them praise the name of the Lord , for his name alone is exalted. His majesty covers heaven and earth. He has raised up a horn for his people, resulting in praise to all his faithful ones, to the Israelites, the people close to him. Hallelujah!' Psalms 148:13-14

Explain:

The theme of Psalm 148 through 150 is pretty evident from the first word. Hallelujah! The word is actually repeated at the beginning and the end of every psalm from 145-150. A fitting conclusion to the book to be sure. The word “hallelujah” comes from the word “praise” (“hallelu”) and “Jah” (a shortened name of God. So in the word hallelujah is the command to praise God. This begins and ends each one of these psalms. So why should we praise “Jah”? Well there are several reasons given. One is given in 148:5 which reads “Let them praise the name of the Lord, FOR (because) He commanded, and they were created.” The very existence of creation commands praise to God. All of its’ diversity and beauty and creativity and design should move us to praise God or Hallelujah! Then He says, “He gave an order that will never pass away.” The design of the planets and days and seasons and years and the subset of conditions required for our very survival all designed by God.

Then in 149 we are given new reasons. He is our King that takes pleasure in His people; who adorns the humble with salvation. (149:1-5). He gives us victory (149:6-9). Also of note in Psalm 149 & 150 is the variety of mediums we should use to praise Him. Exalting God through the diversity of gifting is encouraged. We should praise Him with dance and with tambourine and harp and lyre and trumpets and strings and flutes and all types of cymbals! We should use every medium we can and do all that we can in enthusiastic praise to our God.

The most important of reasons to praise God is found at the end of Psalm 148. 148:14 reads, “He has raised up a horn for His people resulting in praise to all HIs faithful ones, to the Israelites, the people close to Him.” Why should the people close to God praise Him? Because He has raised up a horn for His people. The imagery of the horn is the horn of a bull a symbol of strength and power and the most visible image of that strength and power was its horns. So God raised up a symbol of strength and power for His faithful ones, namely Jesus. The King who so delighted in His people that He was wiling in the selfsame act to show us divine grace and mercy and receive divine wrath and condemnation on the cross delivered us from sin and all its power over us and restored the beautiful creation back to fellowship with the Father. All of creation will one day be restored to that glorious communion and so in the waiting season for that full and complete restoration, we HIs covenant people, the faithful ones, the people close to Him do exactly what it says, HALLELUJAH!

Apply:

What a glorious picture and an incredible truth. Our praise should be loud, enthusiastic, diverse, creative, beautiful, skilled and unified with all of the created order. This is the God we worship, the King, the Horn of our salvation, the One who delights in us and we sing, we dance, we shout, we praise, we worship, we rejoice with all of our being to the God who has created us in beauty and diversity and slender and redeemed (bought us back) and restored us in grace and mercy and love.

Respond:

Jesus, Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! We rejoice with all we have and we give every ounce of our worship to our King. Remind us of these deep and rich truths as we gather to worship on Sunday and may all we do glorify our King!


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Drew Tankersley -
Husband, Father, Pastor 

 Committed to faithfulness personally, in the family, and in ministry with a desire to

“feed the flock of God as a good shepherd” and “equip the saints for ministry.”

I'm blessed to be married to my incredible wife, Georgia, and honored to be dad to Colby and Carly.  I serve as Lead Pastor at South Seminole Baptist Church in East Ridge, TN.

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